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Pilgrim of the Order
The Order ain't precisely a church. It ain't precisely a god, neither. It ain't a pantheon, it ain't a clergy. If you've gotta be precise, the Order is all at once the story of the gods, the rules they follow, and the mysteries of divinity. See, there are nine gods, and they all came about in a bunch of different ways. One of 'em begat another, who begat another, and so on. A couple were always gods. A couple were mortals once, but they went ahead and transubstantiated, becoming one with a host of spirits from the etherium. Some are good and right, some are mean and nasty. But that don't matter much. You don't worship any one god: you worship the Order. Sure, you might ask for Kalla's blessing when you and the little lady get hitched, or for Thuul's help if you've got a secret you want kept. But above any one of 'em gods, there's the Order. Break down the Codex to its most basic, and the Order goes something like this: *Thuul, the King of the Night, taught a mortal man the secrets of alchemy. *That man was Wozak the Mad, who transubstantiated and created a rift in the etherium. *From that rift came a fire which became Zafur, the warmth at night and the all-consuming, god of peace and war. *Zafur celebrated with a big ol' wildfire every ten years, and it consumed the fields of one village, home to an alchemist named Kalla. She transubstantiated and left behind a verdant garden when she did. *But Kalla was with child, and when she was wounded by a demon in the etherium, her child, Tyrum, sprung full-grown right out of her belly to defend her. *Tyrum went across the ethereum to purge all the demons, and their fiery blood pooled and turned black and shiny, like rock from a volcano. And Tyrum's reflection was trapped in there, and became Durram, the Laughing Mirror. *An alchemist traveling through the etherium, guided by Tyrum, but Durram needed the alchemist too, and led the alchemist astray. Her name Kolaris, and when she got lost, her spirit went one way and her body the other. Durram filled her body up with the fire from the sun and all its spirits, making her into a god called Koilos. *Kolaris' soul was protected by Tyrum until he brought her to Kalla, and together they brought her back to the world of the living, where she possessed a sailor who was drowning, and triggered a transubstantiation to become Kolaris of time and tide. *With Kolaris to right the tides, the island of Starke emerged from beneath the waves, and with it, the ancient tree of Starke, who awoke once more to stand beside the other gods. *The shadows cast by Starke's endless boughs spread from the real to the etherium to give birth to Thuul, the King of the Night. ... and so on forever, in the mystery of the Order.